Category: Biscotti

I have been impressing myself lately. Usually, I do not stray from a recipe, I do it exactly as is. This is why I like baking, you follow the recipe and it turns out, it’s a science. Well, I have become quite adventurous with biscotti. I have finally found a ‘base recipe’ that I am able to play around with flavours.

This week I had numerous people asking for more biscotti, so I made 3 batches! I made cherry almond, chocolate and lemon poppy seed. A few weeks ago Mom asked about making lemon poppy seed ones, I initially shriveled up my nose and thought, ick! Who would make that? Well it turns out quite a few people d0! I was looking for a recipe and there were tones, I was pleasantly surprised. After reading dozens of recipes I figured I would ‘wing it’ and hope for the best.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine sugar, lemon juice and eggs. Beat on high with whisk attachment until it holds a ‘ribbon’ for a few seconds. (approx 5 min)

4. Add flour mixture and mix on lowest speed until just combined

5. Form into 3 even logs

6. Bake until firm to the touch and golden, mine are usually 35 minutes

7. Transfer to a wire rack and cool

8. Slice and turn to oven and back until desired hardness, mine were about another 25-30 mins, depends on the day

9. Cool on a wire rack and enjoy! Lasts a few weeks in a storage tin. Tupperware and plastic bags will also work

For me these were just OK. Everyone else said they really liked them. The texture was great, but I found them lacking in flavour but, admittedly in previous post, I am a bit of a lemon freak, when I have something lemony I want a punch of lemon, not a hint. I think another reason I wasn’t a huge fan is, they really were not that sweet. That being said, I still ate them! haha.

Here we are back at the biscotti! I really, really wish Mike had not asked me to make those biscotti for him a few years ago, because I just can’t stop!!! It’s not just me, I have a lot of the family hooked as well. I have been making 2 batches every other weekend. I have been getting a little more adventurous with my biscotti, now that I have a good base to go with. This time I wanted to try something completely different, oatmeal raisin! I was inspired by this recipe Oatmeal and Raisin Biscotti

My name is Erica and I am addicted to biscotti! There I said it! Now, how do I stop?

Over Christmas I made 3 batches of biscotti and had gotten quite used to having one, two, three OK, FOUR with my morning tea. Four, can you believe that? (hanging my head in shame). Well, the holidays were over and back to work I went, back to routine, same ole, same ole. I gotta say, starting the day without those FOUR biscotti is a lot harder than I anticipated! And it is not just me, Mom and Poppa seem to be also hooked, they were both wondering when some more would be coming, haha! Today I caved and made 2 batches, my usual Chocolate and a new one, Pistachio and Cranberry. Poppa and I like the Chocolate, but Mom says they are ‘too sweet’, 2 words I have never spoken, but I aim to please. I love the texture of the Chocolate ones I make so I got adventurous and tried to adapt it to what I was making.

Before we get started, let’s talk about pistachios! I do love pistachios, especially the red ones. I know they all taste the same, but just something about them, I like the red ones better. I guess it is just more fun when your hands get all red and leave some evidence.

It is also kind of fun to eat them ,just like eating the peanuts that have not been shelled. You aim to get it open on the first try, but inevitably there is that one, that does not have a crack and is impossible to break open with just your thumb! The shell also slows you down, you have to work for the reward. Which brings me to preparing the biscotti, boy did they slow me down!! Opening a few and eating them is fun, opening enough to get a cup of them, not so much! It took me almost 20 minutes. All I could think was, these better be good!

Pistachio and Cranberry Biscotti

1. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt and almond powder, and set aside

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine sugar and eggs. Beat on high with whisk attachment until it holds a ‘ribbon’ for a few seconds. (approx 5 min)

3. Now using the paddle, add the flour mixture and stir on lowest speed until just combined

4. Add pistachios and cranberries – mix for a few seconds to combine

5. Evenly separate into 3 logs, on a lined cookie sheet

6. Bake at 350ºC until firm to the touch – mine were about 35 minutes – transfer to a wire rack to cool, but not completely

7. Slice and return to oven to desired ‘crunchiness’. This can be tricky as they will harden up as they cool. I like mine to be quite crisp, I cooked mine for about 25 more minutes. Will also depend on your oven.

8. Return to wire rack until cool – best stored in a tin, but a plastic container will also work

Enjoy!

These were delicious! This was one of the very few times I veered off of a recipe and it actually turned out! The Pistachio flavour really came out once baked and it complemented the tang of the cranberry. The texture was perfect! Quite crunchy but softened just the right about with a quick dunk in my tea. Poppa even liked these ones. I will make these again, I guess all that pistachio shelling was worth it.

Now, I will not be having four with my morning tea, I will try my best to have only one, maaaaaaaaaybe two. I did have one this morning with my Tim Horton’s extra-large steeped tea with milk (heaven in a cardboard cup) and it was delightful! Though I didn’t feel guilty at all as I enjoyed it AFTER my 4k run, I’d say I earned it!

Biscotti time again! It’s been a few weeks since I have made some biscotti and I have been craving it. I kind of got used to having a biscotti, or two, with my morning tea. I didn’t really want to go to the store, so I made do with what I had in the kitchen.

I knew I had some almonds and dried cranberries and of course the other basics. I couldn’t find one recipe that seemed like what I wanted. I found 2 recipe that I adapted and put together. One is from the Ocean Spray website the other is from Everything Biscotti.

4. In the bowl of your stand mixer, whip eggs and almond extract. (mixer not necessary, mixing by hand also works fine)

5. Add dry ingredients and mix at lowest speed just until combined

6. Form dough into 2 logs and bake for 35 minutes

7. Transfer to a cooling rack for about 20 minutes

8. Slice on a diagonal with a serrated knife. Return to the cookie sheet, leaving at least a half inch between each one. Bake for another 20-30 minutes

9. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely

10. When biscotti has cooled completely melt chocolate and drizzle

Allow chocolate to set before starting your kettle to make the tea!

This recipe was quite good if i do say so myself. The texture of these biscotti were excellent, not too hard and not soft, just perfect for dunking. The tang from the cranberries and the little bit of sweet from the white chocolate went perfect together. Next time I would add more almond extract.

Like this:

In a “celebration” of past Daring Baker and Daring Cook challenges, Lisa challenged all of us to search through the Daring Kitchen archives and pick any one we’d like! The REAL challenge was picking which delicious recipe(s) to try!

I have not participated in the Daring Bakers for quite some time. Honestly, I was just not fond of things that were picked to be made, I just can’t justify making something that I know I will not enjoy. When I logged on at the beginning of the month I was trilled to see this months challenge, we were able to pick any challenge from the past. This meant that we could make one that we really loved, one that we missed, or one that was done before we joined, so many possibilities!

At first I immediately thought I wanted to make the Chocolate Valentino, a flourless chocolate cake that I had admired for years! It was the challenge the month before I joined, I have always wanted to make it and even added it to my Bucket List of Baking. As I was looking for the recipe, in the Daring Bakers Archive, I happen to come across a recipe for biscotti. This peaked my interest as I seem to be obsessed with biscotti at the present time. As I looked further into the recipe I KNEW this is what I would make. The recipe had one huge difference from any other biscotti recipe I had made, this one had butter in it. From all the biscotti research I’ve done over the past while it seems that the addition of butter seems to be an ‘American Biscotti’. They apparently are less crunchy to their Italian counterparts who don’t use butter or oils. I have seen many recipes that called for butter but always skipped over them, now is my chance to try one out!

Chocolate Biscotti

Daring Bakers December 2006

Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, Houghton Mifflin Company, Nov 2006

3. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until pale, about 2 minutes

4. The mixture may be crumbly. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the eggs and vanilla and beat for another 2 minutes; don’t worry if the mixture looks curdled.

5. Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the dry ingredients in 3 additions, mixing only until a dough forms. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

6. Mix in the chopped nuts and chocolate

7. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and knead in any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.

8. Divide the dough in half. Working with one half at a time, roll the dough into 12 inch long logs. Flatten both logs with the palm of your hand so that they are 1/2 to 1 inch high, about 2 inches across and sort of rectangular, then carefully lift the logs onto the baking sheet.

9. Bake the logs for about 25 minutes, or until they are just slightly firm. The logs will spread and crack – and that’s just fine.

10. Remove the baking sheet from working with one log at a time, using a long serrated knife, cut each log into slices between 1/2 and 3/4 inch thick.

11. Stand the slices up on the baking sheet and bake the cookies again, this time for just 10 minutes (mine were in for about 30 minutes).

12. Cool on a wire rack

These biscotti were pretty good. I was very worried that they would be more ‘cake like’ as i read about, because of the addition of the butter. I did cook them longer than they said so I could crunch them up a bit. The texture was quite different, they were much more like a cookie. They didn’t have that ‘hard bite’ that I associate with a biscotti. I also found them to be quite crumbly, especially when biting, quite messy. Not a whole lot of flavour, but ok. I am glad I tried them, but will probably not make them again. I think I will stick to the traditional Italian version of biscotti.

Thanks for a great challenge, I love when a Daring Bakers Challenge makes me step outside of my comfort zone.

A while back I mentioned I was going to be making a lot more biscotti because I had found more people who liked them. Since that statement, I have made none! Here’s why…its been ridiculously hot and humid. The last four days have felt like 45°C with the humidity! The air is thick and gross. I have found that humidity and biscotti do not get along well, they just don’t hold their crunch. It’s like they have been pre-dipped, yuck! Anyways….last night there was a lovely storm, with rain and heavy winds that broke the heat, my house went from 45° to 25°C, it is wonderful! Have I mentioned how much I hate the heat? It’s July and I’d be happy if it snowed.

Back to the biscotti. I found this recipe about a year ago at Bakeorbreak.com. (Jennifer has some other really amazing looking treats on there as well, do check them out!) I thought it looked delicious and really, how can you go wrong with cinnamon! I LOVE cinnamon! I will usually double the amount of cinnamon a recipe calls for. This recipe called for something I could not locate in Canada, or at least in my area. I was able to find them in the States and brought back 5 bags of Cinnamon Chips, made by Hershey’s.

6. Let cool on the pan for 5 to 15 minutes, then slice the biscotti into 3/4-inch slices. Slice on the diagonal to yield longer biscotti. Be sure to slice straight up and down so the slices will not topple over during baking.

8. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer to a rack. After the biscotti have cooled, they can be stored in an airtight container for 2 weeks.

9. Brew up your favourite cup of tea, dunk and enjoy 🙂

These were quite tasty! The aroma coming from the oven was amazing, almost like cinnamon buns. They had a prefect texture, they were quite crunchy without breaking your teeth, but when you dunked, softened just enough to chew. You could really taste the cinnamon sugar (I did double the cinnamon) and the cinnamon chips were a nice addition. I was a little concerned about the cinnamon chips, on their own they were not fantastic but in the recipe they were quite nice.

I will be making these again, I think they would be wonderful on a cold winter day to fill the house with the wonderful warm smell of cinnamon.

I tired a new biscotti recipe last week. I love the flavour of the Almond Cherry Biscotti that I usually make, but I can’t seem to get them to ‘harden up’. They always seem to be too soft, more like a cookie. Don’t get me wrong, it does not stop me from eating them, but I thought I would try something different.

I found this recipe on Everything-Biscotti.com. This is a great resource if you are into biscotti. I was able to get some great tips and some more recipes I would like to try. This recipe was Almond biscotti, I like the almond cherry combination so I added cherries to the recipe.

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and place oven rack in center of oven. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

2. In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking soda and salt

3. Add almond and cherries, stir to combine

4. In a small bowl combine vanilla, almond extract, egg and egg white

5. Add egg mixture to dry ingredients. Stir until well combined. Dough will be dry. Dump onto a floured surface and kneed about 10 times to bring everything together

6. Form into 2 equal logs, approximately 1 inch thick. Place on prepared sheets

7. Bake for 30 minutes or until the log is firm to the touch and golden. Place logs on a wire rack to cool, approximately 15 minutes

8. Reduce the oven to 325F.

9. On a cutting board, with a serrated knife, cut on a diagonal approximately 1/2 inch thick

10. Place cut side down on cookie sheet and bake from 12 minutes. Turn each biscotti over and bake for another 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack

This recipe was pretty good. I quite prefer the texture of these biscotti over the ones I usually make. These were much more crunchy and dry. As for the flavour, they were a little weak. Next time I would add a lot more almond extract, perhaps up to a teaspoon, I could barely taste the almond. I will make these again with a few changes. Can’t wait to try another flavour soon!